Lot Essay
This important collection of fourteen untitled drawings by Jean-Michel Basquiat forms a comprehensive lexicon of the street poetry that established his reputation in New York's underground art scene in the early 1980s, introducing the subjects that would preoccupy him throughout his phenomenally productive but tragically brief career. At barely twenty years of age, Basquiat had gained widespread notoriety for the disjointed aphorisms of his alter-ego SAMO, an abbreviation for Same Old Bullshit, whose spray painted words formed a conspicuous part of the city's landscape. In his determination to become a painter and distinguish himself from New York's burgeoning graffiti scene, Basquiat ended his SAMO identity by the end of 1980 but retained his concentrated philosophical mottos as a recurrent feature in his unique painterly expressions of raw urban primitivism.
Created in 1981, these early drawings convey the range of Basquiat's primary conceptual concerns, offering an index to his motivations and the meanings inherent in his paintings. In these works, Basquiat expresses his skepticism towards economic exchange and the commodification of natural resources with the slogans like 'Milk' and 'Gold Wood', stamping them with a copyright symbol as a sign of originality and an ironic comment on the notion of the ownership of ideas. In addition, the drawings inscribed 'Origin of Cotton' and 'Tar Town' signal his identification with the marginalization of black people in society, whilst his tribute to 'Famous Negro Athletes', including baseball star Hank Aaron, are crowned as a symbol of his respect and admiration. The stark austerity of these works stand in contrast to the frenzied visual overload typically associated with Basquiat's paintings, but their strong graphic sensibility indicates his masterful understanding of composition, forming a clear distillation of the themes that propelled him from Bowery district street urchin and graffiti sloganeer into the enfant terrible of the international art world within a few short years.
Created in 1981, these early drawings convey the range of Basquiat's primary conceptual concerns, offering an index to his motivations and the meanings inherent in his paintings. In these works, Basquiat expresses his skepticism towards economic exchange and the commodification of natural resources with the slogans like 'Milk' and 'Gold Wood', stamping them with a copyright symbol as a sign of originality and an ironic comment on the notion of the ownership of ideas. In addition, the drawings inscribed 'Origin of Cotton' and 'Tar Town' signal his identification with the marginalization of black people in society, whilst his tribute to 'Famous Negro Athletes', including baseball star Hank Aaron, are crowned as a symbol of his respect and admiration. The stark austerity of these works stand in contrast to the frenzied visual overload typically associated with Basquiat's paintings, but their strong graphic sensibility indicates his masterful understanding of composition, forming a clear distillation of the themes that propelled him from Bowery district street urchin and graffiti sloganeer into the enfant terrible of the international art world within a few short years.